Ace Frehley
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Artist · chart history

Ace Frehley

Solo artist The Bronx United States American rock guitarist

Ace Frehley is an artist from The Bronx. Ace Frehley has 14 chart appearances on 12 radio countdowns from 7 stations on RockLists, spanning 1990–2025. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “New York Groove”, which appears on 11 lists with a best position of #79. The station that charted Ace Frehley most often is Q104.3 (New York, NY), with 5 appearances.

14appearances
12countdowns
4songs charted
7stations
0#1 finishes
1990–2025years

Ace Frehley came out of the Bronx with a Les Paul, a head full of outer space and a character to match: he was a founding member of Kiss and its original lead guitarist, and he's the one who dreamed up the Spaceman. From the band's start in 1973 he was the guy who turned the guitar solo into part of the fireworks show. One of his Les Pauls poured smoke out of its neck pickup and spat spinning pyrotechnics; another flashed light in time with the song. Strip away the gimmicks and the playing still stands up, aggressive and melodic, with a spacey atmosphere that suited the makeup, and he stepped up to the microphone now and then too.

His 1978 solo debut, Ace Frehley, went platinum, and "New York Groove" is the strutting stomp from it that still turns up on rock countdowns.

He walked out of Kiss in 1982, put together Frehley's Comet and made two albums with them, then carried on under his own name, with Trouble Walkin' arriving in 1989. The greasepaint came back out for the 1996 reunion tour, and he stayed until 2002, bowing out at the end of what was supposed to be the band's farewell run. He went into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Kiss in 2014, was still cutting records as late as 10,000 Volts in 2024, and died in October 2025 from complications after a fall at home.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.

Songs by Ace Frehley on radio countdowns

#SongStrengthListsBest#1sPeak year
1 New York Groove
500
11 #79 – –
2 Trouble Walkin
47
1 #535 – –
3 Rock Soldiers
40
1 #601 – –
4 We Got Your Rock
30
1 #697 – –

Albums with charting songs

Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.

Every countdown appearance

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